the girl with the mary janes
by finnhudson
Summary: this boy, finn, smiles at her and shakes her hand and she decides that he's the most wonderful boy she's ever met in her entire life. with his light brown eyes and his sweet smile. AU finchel.


**so this is something that i wrote for my creative writing class and when i was done i thought it would be a really cute finchel story so i changed the names and here it is! **

**disclaimer: i own nothing. **

**shout out to my creative writing teacher for making me write this! **

She straightens out her dress and wipes all the remaining sand from her hands and her bare legs, admiring the castle that she had made in the sandbox. He was over by the swings, drawing in the dirt, trying not to get hit in the head with the feet of the swinging kids. Re-tying the bow in her hair, she approaches the swings, a strong determination in her eyes, she's seen him drawing in the dirt almost every day for a year and she is now determined to talk to him. She's never been one to think about boys, unlike some of the girls her age who have realized that boys don't have cooties anymore, but she thinks this boy is very, very cute. He's got dimples and pretty eyes from what she's seen.

"Hello." She says brightly when she finally reaches him after the seemingly endless walk from the sandbox to the swingset. He glances up at her and smiles shyly, looking surprised that this pint size brunette wearing a plaid dress and mary janes with little white socks is talking to him.

"Hi." He says, standing up and wiping his hands on his pants, remembering what his mom said about shaking people's hands when you meet them for the first time. "I'm Finn, what's your name?" He asks, holding his hand out for her.

She blushes slightly, grabbing his hand. "I'm Rachel, it's wonderful to meet you Finn." She says, a small smile spreading across her lips. She's never met a boy so polite before, most boys only look at her, some may laugh and snicker, but this boy, Finn, smiles at her and shakes her hand and she decides that he's the most wonderful boy she's ever met in her entire life. With his light brown eyes and his sweet smile.

"Yeah, you too." He says, lightly pulling his hand out of her grip, her hand was warm and small, which seemed to be a common trait in her, her feet, her hands, the only thing not small about her it seemed was the wide smile that was plastered on her lips. Finn glanced down at his feet, shuffling them against the dirt. He had never been this close to a girl before.

"I saw you drawing something in the dirt." Rachel says, pointing down at the now destroyed castle that had been drawn in the dirt under their feet. Finn just shrugs, he's not trying to be rude, but he's just confused as to why she was over here talking to him. She had never talked to him before, he had wanted her too though. She was really pretty, her hair was really shiny and looked really soft, she always had a pretty dress and her hair was always held back with a ribbon or a headband.

"Do you mind if I sit and draw with you?" Rachel asks, picking a stick up off the ground and smiling timidly at him. He nods, giving her a bright smile. So that's what they do, they sit in the dirt and draw an elaborate castle, and when his mom comes to pick him up, Rachel introduces herself and she tells him she'll see him tomorrow.

"How do you know I'll be here tomorrow?" He asks, his eyebrows wrinkled together in confusion. She gulps, she knows that he comes here every day around 2 and his friends with some of the other boys, but never actually plays with them, but their mom's watch him and he stays until 4. But, she can't tell him that, it would be far too humiliating.

"I guess, I just thought you might be..." She says, looking down at her dirt stained mary janes, not daring to look the boy in the eye. Biting her lip, she glances up and notices that he's smiling at her and he nods.

"Yeah, I will be, I'll see you tomorrow Rach." He says, flashing her another small smile which causes her insides to turn to mush and she has to contain the squeal that's threatening to be released.

The next morning, Finn's practically jumping up and down thinking about seeing the pretty girl from the park yesterday, but at breakfast his mom sits him down and tells him that the pretty girl, Rachel, won't be playing with him at the park anymore.

"But why not?" He asks, she said she would see him today, and she wouldn't lie to him, Finn knows that she never would, she laughed at all of his jokes and he made her smile, she wouldn't lie to him.

"Well honey," his mom fold her hands in front of her and clears her throat. "Rachel got really sick and they had to put her in the hospital." Finn looked up at his mom, who was wiping tears away from her face.

"What do you mean, she got really sick, she seemed fine yesterday." He said simply, he knew that when he was sick, he looked sick and wouldn't be allowed to go to the park if he was sick, and Leah didn't say anything about being sick.

"She has something called cancer...do you know what that is sweetie?" His mom asked, taking his hands in her own, he shook his head, not wanting to speak. "It's a disease that makes it very hard for you to live normally,Rachel may have been fine yesterday but sometimes it can happen really fast and you don't know it's happening." His mom said, giving him a sad smile.

"Is she gonna be ok?" He asked, looking up at his mom, who was fighting back tears. He didn't know why he cared so much, he had only known her for a day, but he felt like he had known her much longer than that.

"The doctors don't know yet honey. But right now she needs to be with the doctors so they can make sure that she stays stable." Finn nodded slowly, not knowing what to make of the whole situation. He was only seven years old, he's never heard of cancer before, he wonders if it's just like a really bad stomach ache or something and he wonders if Rachel will be out of the hospital by his birthday the following week.

"Mom, can I invite Rachel to my birthday party next week?" His mom looks surprised but nods, smiling slightly. He smiles back, going back to his breakfast of cocoa puffs and orange juice, not noticing his mom wipe the tears from her eyes.

Three days later and three visits to the park later and Finn still hasn't seen Rachel yet, he hasn't asked his mom about her, since the last time they talked about her, his mom cried. He wonders if she's out the hospital yet and wonders if she'll want to come to his birthday party, he wants her so come. Now on the fourth day after his mom told him Leah had cancer, they were walking hand and hand so she could drop him off at the park like she did everyday.

As soon as Finnn sees the swingset and the sandbox, he releases his mom's hand and runs forward, looking around for any sight of a small brunette girl, but comes up empty handed, the only people there he recognizes are his friends Sam and Puck and they never play with him anyway. He sighs slightly and sits down on the wooden side of the sandbox, suddenly disinterested in the park.

"Mom, can you take me to the hospital with you? I want to visit Rachel." His mom looks down at him and Finn thinks that she might be crying again, he didn't mean to make her cry, he really wants to visit his friend.

"Sure honey, I'm sure Rachel would love to see you." She says, grabbing his hand and waving goodbye to the other mothers that usually watch him. They make the mile long trek to the hospital, where his mom works as a secretary for one of the doctors, and Finn smiles the entire way there. He can't wait to tell Rachel about how he saved that cricket from being squished yesterday and about the dragon he drew the day before that. He knows she'll be happy he saved the crickets life.

Once they finally arrive at the hospital, Finn practically sprints through the doors and barely hears his mom ask the woman at the front desk where Rachel Berry's room. Finn bounces on his toes as his mom knocks on the door of Leah's room, hoping that she's there at that her parents will let him see her. A balding man with glasses opens the door and smiles at the two of them.

"Hello there, and who might you be?" He asks, bending down to look Finn in the eye. He thinks that this man must be Rachel's father. Finn looks up at his mom, who smiles at him and nudges his shoulder.

"I'm Finn. Me and Rachel met at the park a few days ago, she's my friend." He says, smiling at the man. He smiles back warmly and opens the door, letting mother and son into the room. Finn pushes past the man, but stops in his tracks when he sees Rachel in the hospital bed. She's giving him large smile, but other than that, he barely recognizes her. Her skin is pale and her eyes are hollow and empty.

"Finn!" She exclaims, her voice scratched and quieter than he remembered. She smiles brighter when he takes a step closer to him. The way she looks throws him off, but as soon as she exclaims his name, he knows that it's still her. He can hear his mom and her dad talking behind them but he doesn't care.

"Hey Rachel. I heard that you were here and I told my mom that I wanted to see you." He says, sitting on the edge of her bed, giving her a small smile, she giggles softly and he feels something inside of him twist.

"You're my first visitor, I feel bad because I promised to see you at the park and I let you down." She says, reaching out and grabbing a hold of his hand. "I'm really glad that you came to visit me." He smiles, and squeezes her hand. He doesn't know how to explain what's happening inside of him, he wonders if this is what love feels like, he knows he should be like grossed out because Rachel's a girl and girls have cooties, but he's not, he thinks Rachel is really pretty and nice and he likes having her as a friend.

"I'm really glad that I came too." He says, and they both smile at each other. They sit like that for a few hours nearly, before his mom comes and tells him that it's time to go home. He waves goodbye to Rachel and tells her that he'll come and visit her tomorrow if he can and she tells him that she'd love to have him.

That night while him and his mom eat frozen pizza and drink their milk from paper cups, she tells him what Rachel's dad told her about her cancer and her treatment.

"Apparently, the good thing is that Rachel's cancer is completely treatable and she's gonna be just fine, the bad news is that she's gonna have to be in the hospital for a few weeks while they treat it." His mom says, slowly, making sure that Finn doesn't miss any of the information that she's giving him, he doesn't and he grins widely at her news.

"That's awesome!" He says, jumping out of his chair and hugging his mom. His mom jumps in surprise, but hugs him back just as fiercely. "I'm gonna go draw her a picture for when we go and visit her tomorrow." He says, grabbing his cup and downing the rest of his milk before bolting up the stairs to his room.

And true enough, four weeks later, exactly two months before her eighth birthday Leah is declared cancer free by her doctor and two weeks after that her and Cory are back to playing in the park, making castles in the sandbox, drawing dragons and lions in the dirt by the swingset and sometimes even taking turns pushing each other down the slide. She's his best friend and he's hers.

Two years later, they end up in the same fifth grade class and two days after school starts, Finn kisses her behind the jungle gym during a game of tag, and he tells her that she's the prettiest girl he's ever seen. Puck and Sam make fun of him for it later, but Sam's never kissed a girl before and Puck's only kissed Lauren Zizes, so Finn thinks he comes out on top in this argument.

Seven years after that day on the playground, Finn and Rachel are packing up their boxes for New York City, Rachel's going to study at NYADA and Finn's not quite sure what he's going to do with himself yet, but he knows with Rachel by his side he can do anything. The first thing they hang in their small shoe box apartment is a picture of them on Rachel's hospital bed the day she was declared cancer free.

She gets pain sometimes, it's usually random, a pang here, a burn there, a small flicker and then it's gone. She knows that her doctor said that there was almost zero chance of the cancer coming back, but she can't help but worry sometimes. She twists the ring on her finger a lot when she thinks about her cancer, Finn had proposed to her a few weeks earlier and she knew that if something did happen and she had to be treated that he would be by her side through every step of the way, and that alone makes the possibility of getting cancer again suck just a little less.

Rachel's cancer never comes back, not once, she still has to get tested sometimes, but the tests are always clear. And nearly 20 years after that fateful day on the playground where boy met girl, Finn and Rachel get married in Central Park, her dad and daddy and his mom crying through the whole ceremony and Rachel crying through most of it, and when it's over, there isn't a dry eye in the house, not even Puck. Although he would deny it if you ever brought it up.

"I'm really glad that you decided to talk to me that day in the park." he whispers in her ear as they sway on the dance floor during their first dance. She grins, nuzzling her cheek against his suit covered chest.

"I'm glad too Finn, for everything. For talking to you in the park, for you kissing me in fifth grade, for everything, but I'm especially glad for our future and everything it will bring us. I love you so much."

"I love you too Rach, forever."

**I've realized that I can't end fics to save my life, so I changed up things a little and ended up rewriting the ending completely to seem more Finn and Rachel but other than that, this is almost word for word my creative writing story. I hope you enjoyed it!**

**Reviews make me really happy! Thanks for reading!**


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